


They're All Fools

by punkstealer



Category: Preacher (TV)
Genre: AU, Cassidy saves Tulip, Hurt Cassidy, Hurt/Comfort, Instead of Tulip, Jesse's grandma saves Cassidy, M/M, Pre-OT3, Season 3, So he gets shot instead, pre Proinsias Cassidy/Jesse Custer/Tulip O'Hare
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 20:57:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16003157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punkstealer/pseuds/punkstealer
Summary: Cassidy gets shot at the end of s2 instead.-“So what is Purgatory?”Marie raises a thin eyebrow to her uninvited guest. “It’s not Heaven and it’s not Hell. It’sa waitin’ room where they play old memories and when he opens the door to let Death in then he’ll be gone forever.”“Can you see what he’s seein’?”





	They're All Fools

“You know, the first night I met him I thought he was Clive and beat him outta window.” Jesse tears his eyes from the road to look at Tulip, but she keeps her head pressed against the passenger window with her gaze off in the distance.

He doesn’t blame her.

“Glass was sticking outta his throat and I thought he was gonna die. I prayed to God to save him, the first time I’ve prayed in years,” Tulip lets out a dry laugh. “He asked me to kiss him as his dyin’ wish. So I did it.” Jesse tightens his hold on the steering wheel, but doesn’t say anything. Nothing good will come from him talking right now, especially with the body of his best friend in the backseat. “Sonofabitch lived. Crawled off while I was yellin’ at the secretary and I found him drinking some of those damn blood bags.”

Jesse can picture it. Cassidy sprawled out, bleeding with glass in his neck, and happily drinking from those ridiculous hospital blood bags that he steals. He probably just laughed when Tulip found him. That’s the crazy vampire for you, though.

“I was so mad at you then, Jesse Custer. I was gonna go tell you where to stick it and leave you behind in bumfuck Texas. I found Cassidy the next night, got high, ‘nd fucked him.”

“What?” He swerves into the next lane, but quickly jerks back as he gapes at Tulip.

“He wanted to tell ‘ya, but I kept sayin’ no.” Tulip finally shifts her eyes to look at him. “Jesse Custer, if he dies then I will never forgive you for this.”

He could feel his mouth going dry, his tongue suddenly feeling like sandpaper and sticking to the bottom of his mouth, and he nods at her. He can’t really blame her. It’s his damn fault that Cassidy got hurt; him and that fucking white coat organization bullshit. Jesse can’t understand how he got sucked into the shit that Herr Starr had said to him.

“Me too, Tulip, me too.”

They stay silent as Jesse speeds down the abandoned road.

-

Jesse has his arms crossed as he watches his grandma place her hand on Cassidy’s forehead; Tulip is behind him, silent and tense, he’s never taken her here, but she knows enough about this place to feel uneasy.

“He’s not human.” Marie L’Angell says as she looks up toward Jesse and Tulip. She has a small frown tugging at the corner of her mouth as she takes in her grandson’s tense form.

“Vampire.”

Jesse can see the flicker of surprise on her face as she nods. “He’s still in purgatory. Got some fight in this one.”

“So you can bring him back?” Out of the corner of his eye he sees Tulip step forward.

“Well, Purgatory’s a waitin’ room, but you can’t wait forever. Pretty soon – I’d say in like,” She turns her head to look at the clock on the wall. “Well, soon, death’ll come to the door, and when he answers, he’ll be gone for good. You know what I need.”

“Yeah, I made a list.” Jesse finally drops his arms as he pivots to go back out the door, but stop one she starts talking again.

“Well, hurry up, then. Oh, and some transpoil. I’m all out.”

“Where am I gonna get some?”

“Ask Jody.”

She holds out a folded piece of paper toward him. Jesse can feel a rush of hatred sweep through his stomach as he stares at his grandma’s smug look. She knows damn well what she’s doing, but it’s not like he has much of a choice. He steps forward and with a gentle touch he takes the paper from her hand.

“Come on.” He wraps his free hand around Tulip’s arm. “I need your help.”

The pair make it outside before Tulip finally tugs her arm free from him. “You’re just gonna leave him alone with her?”

“I don’t have much of a choice right now.” Jesse reaches into his pocket and pulls out a second folded paper to hand to her. “Take this, go to the store.”

“What is it?” She opens it and furrows her eyebrows together as she skims over the writing.

“It’s a list of Cassidy’s favorite things.”

“Salt and Vinegar Chips? Cheetos?”

“He likes the taste of the Salt and Vinegar, but likes the crunch of the Cheetos more.”

“ _Justin Bieber_?”

He can’t help but smile at her incredulous tone. “We need to invite his spirit back to the land of the living. It helps to remind her of stuff that he likes.”

“Oh okay.” Tulip follows behind Jesse as they walk across the lawn. “It’s a ‘favorite things list’ to invite his spirit back to the land of the living. Well, that makes perfect sense. I have no questions about this then.”

“Good.”

Tulip halts her movements and presses her lips into a thin line, her no nonsense face that she seems to have on a lot with these two. “Chips, Justin Bieber, Chinese food, drugs, booze. Are you fuckin’ kidding me?”

“What?” He whirs around to face her with his jaw clenched tight.

“This is all of his favorite things?”

“He’s 119 year old vampire. Cass loves everything and nothing. Anything else you want to tell me about the guy I’ve known longer than you have?”

She cocks her hip out and rests her hands on it, “Yeah. If this doesn’t save him, I’m gonna kill you.”

Jesse can feel the despair rip him up from the inside out, he already knows it clear on his face, and he nods at her.

“Right. Just get what’s on the list. I’m goinna go talk to Jody.”

Jesse tosses the keys toward her and turns his back to walk off. His destination already in sight, but that doesn’t mean he actually wants to go through with it.

“Who the hell is that?”

“The guy who killed my father.”

He doesn’t turn to look at her as he walks down the dirt path; he’s not even sure that she heard him, but he’s on a mission and isn’t going to let himself get so distracted. Cassidy doesn’t have much time and who knows how long it’ll take to deal with Jody. It’s a couple of minutes down the path before Jesse can see the old, rickety shack that has the ‘Gator Tours’ sign nailed to the front. The tall man is skinning one of the alligators when Jesse finally reaches the wooden deck.

“Hey.” Jesse’s eyes flicker down to the bloody knife when Jody turns to look at him. “It’s been awhile. You’re probably still pissed.” _That’s an understatement,_ Jesse thinks. “I need transpoil. My friend… I don’t have much time.”

Jody doesn’t say anything as Jesse switches from standing on one foot to the other; the folded paper still clenched in his hand, but forgotten about.

“So you gonna help me or what?”

Jody finally steps forward and Jesse’s eyes can’t stop glancing from the knife to his face. He’s not opposed to fighting Jody, but he needs him to get the transpoil. There’s no time for this bullshit showdown that’s about to happen. Instead, Jody lets out a small chuckle and tugs him into a hug, transferring blood onto Jesse’s clothes in the process.

Asshole.

“Ahh.” Jody lets go of Jesse’s tense body. “You can dress up like your daddy all you want, kid. But you never looked more like your mama than you do right now.”

It’s probably the misery that’s etched into his features, but yeah. Thanks for that.

“Lot to catch up on.” Their eyes meet for the briefest moment before Jesse looks away. “But for now, your friend’s in trouble, you need some transpoil, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Jesse shifts a little and can feel the paper pressing against his palm. “Here.”

Jody takes the slip of paper, leaving more blood streaks on Jesse’s hand than is necessary, and skims over the words. He crinkles up the paper and shoves it into the pockets of his jeans that he’s wearing underneath the leather apron.

“I know just the place. Run along back to your gran’ma, boy.”

He doesn’t feel comfortable with turning his back to Jody, but he does it anyway. Jesse keeps his head high as he turns and leaves back down the dirt path that he just came up. He doesn’t trust Jody, but his grandma does and that’s all that really matters. Jody will listen to her. So as long as that paper says to get the damn transpoil then Jesse will do his part and walk away.

The sky is starting to darken by the time he gets back to the house. It’s only been 20 minutes since they first arrived back to his childhood home, but it feels like it’s been days. The exhaustion is weighing down on his shoulders like he has lead attached to him; only he can’t just caught off what’s attaching him. The feeling hasn’t left him since Tulip first called.

-

_“Jesse!” He can hear Tulip shouting from the other end of the phone before he even has it pressed against his ear. “Jesse Custer, you best answer me right now!”_

_“Tulip, what’s wrong?”_

_He can hear her erratic breathing as she tries to suck in more air. “Jesse, they shot him!”_

_“Who?”_

_“Cassidy!”_

_“Awe, he’ll be fine. Jus’ give him one of the bags from the freezer.”_

_“No! He can’t heal, Jesse! I already tried that, but he won’t stop bleeding. Oh, god. Jesse, I don’t know what to do.”_

_“I’ll be there soon, okay? Ya’ hear me? I’ll be there.”_

_Jesse ends the call and hastily shoves the phone back into his pocket as he steps away from Herr Starr. He knows there will be some sort of backlash for this, but that doesn’t matter. His friends need him._

_“I gotta go.”_

_In an instant he’s in the back of the black car and yelling at the driver to just “Go! Go! **GO!** ”_

-

Thoughts of Cassidy not making it swirl around his head. Jesse’s not sure what he’ll do if that happens. Cass is his best friend. No one knows Jesse like him and Tulip. His mind shifts, along with his stomach, as he thinks about what Tulip told him about the two of them. He’s disappointed that he had to find out about the two of them this way and he’s mad at both of them. Cass for fucking his Tulip and Tulip for fucking his… Cass.

Jesse is pulled from his thoughts as he hears a car pullup followed by Tulip’s angry curses. She’s probably damning his soul to hell right now, not that he blames her for it really. He’s not sure how much time passed while he was stuck in his thoughts, but he finally stops his shuffling in the dirt to follow Tulip inside. She grabs a couple of bags, more than is probably necessary with the sort list that he provided her with, and kicks the car door closed.

He could offer to help her.

She’ll probably kick him in the nuts.

Instead he lets a handful of minutes pass before he follows her inside. It’s eerie quiet; a complete opposite from what it was like when he was small. The halls always crammed with murmuring crowds and the rooms packed with sick visitors. It sends a shiver down his spine as he walks down the hallway toward his grandma’s work room is.

“I got his favorite things.” Tulip lets the bags crash to the floor and take a seat opposite Marie. “Is Jesse not back yet?”

“Soon.” Jesse peaks out from the wall and sees his grandma take her hands away from Cass’ face. “Or better be.”

Marie picks up one of the brightly colored peppers from the tin beside her and takes a bite from it. The loud chews and groans fill the silence that encloses the room.  Tulip finally takes her eyes from her friend to stare in bewilderment to the older woman.

“What’s that?”

“Scorpion pepper.” Jesse has to bite down a grin as he recalls this part from his past. “Sometimes… if the spirit senses your pain, it’ll come back to ease it.”

“Right.”

Jesse can tell that Tulip doesn’t believe a word being said, but doesn’t care enough to try and argue it. She, too, is far too tired to do anything but wait.

“Maybe he’ll come back for yours.” Marie holds out a bright, red pepper for Tulip to take. She waits until Tulip bites into the pepper before speaking again. “Years ago, I loved someone who loved another.”

Tulip gags on the pepper.

“I tried to woo him. Everything, anything, to move his heart to mine… but nothing worked. And I was beautiful, too, years ago…Mnh-mnh. Leave it. The more it hurts the more it helps.”

“Oh, wha’ th’ h’ll?” Tulip tries to speak around the saliva gathering and burning in her mouth.

“Anyway,” Marie leans back in her chair. “… nothing worked. I just wanted… just wanted to be wanted back. So… I made him a draught. A spell.”

Jesse can hear bottles and jars being shifted around as Tulip continues to gag against the pepper in her mouth.

“An old recipe from slavery days. I made it, mixed it, and I sprayed him with it. And it worked. And from that moment on, he wanted me and only me. Day… after day… after day… Until I killed him. I’m so grateful that you brought Jesse back to us, flower. If you ever wanted something in return… all you have to do is ask.”

He can hear Tulip finally spit the pepper out and gasp. Jesse’s heart clenches in his chest, but he’s not sure why. Tulip would never need that sort of shit on him and it’s not like she has any real romantic feelings toward Cass.

“You know,” Tulip wipes the back of her hand across her mouth. “He got shot for me. Some undercover bitch was keepin’ an eye on us while her boss recruited Jesse to be some sort of Jesus figure. She had her gun pointed at me an’ I only had this screwdriver that I found in my hand. Cass came up the stairs and shoved me out of the way just in time. Bullets don’t keep a guy like Cassidy down-”

“A vampire?”

“Yeah. A vampire. So what I’m askin’ you to do is fix him so we can get the hell outta dodge. Besides, you don’ see how they look at each other. You’ll understand what I mean soon enough. I can’t mess with someone’s head when it’s so obvious, can you?”

Jesse feels like all the air is sucked out of his lungs. He can’t breathe and he doesn’t know why. It feels like the ground is shaking under his feet and there’s nothing for him to grab onto.

“Usually people who are getting such a great deal aren’t so hasty to leave.”

“What deal?”

“This,” She spreads her arms wide over Cass’ body. “One free ‘get out of death’ card, you could say.”

“And why,” Tulip crosses her arms over her chest. “Are you doing this for free?”

“I’ve never worked on a vampire before. I’ll bring him back in exchange for some… questions.”

“Questions? That’s it?” Suspicion is laced into each of Tulip’s words as she eyes the older woman.

“Mmhm. Tha’s right. Just some questions.”

“Fine.”

The pair sit in a tense silence, both of looking at the dead man on the table, as Jesse struggles to get his head back on straight. It’s all just too much. Cass is dead and being back in Angelville is fucking with his head.

“So what is Purgatory?”

Marie raises a thin eyebrow to her uninvited guest. “It’s not Heaven and it’s not Hell. It’sa waitin’ room where they play old memories and when he opens the door to let Death in then he’ll be gone forever.”

“Can you see what he’s seein’?”

“Of course, but that would be an invasion of privacy. Isn’t that right, Jesse?”

Tulip whips her head around to stare at the doorway as Jesse finally steps through it. He should feel shame at being discovered, but he doesn’t. His grandma has always known what goes on in this house so he’s not shocked that she knew he was there. For how long, he’s not sure.

“Jody should be back any minute now. Why don’t you show your friend here how to set up all the gifts.”

She leaves the room, silence following her, as Jesse steps toward the bags on the floor. The first bag is stuffed with chips and an assortment of chocolate. He raises his eyebrow in question at it.

“What? He said he gets cravings.”

Tulip has a look on her face like she thinks he’s stupid for not knowing this, hell maybe he is, and he just shakes his head with a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He opens the chips and hands the bags over to her.

“Place them near his body. He needs to be able to smell it.”

Jesse hears the truck pull up as he and Tulip busy themselves with opening the goods up around Cassidy. The chips placed on one of the stands near his head while Jesse places the Chinese food on the opposite side of the room. He didn’t need it to overpower the rest of the smells. The booze was easy enough with sprinkling a few drops into his mouth. Each available surface is soon covered with goodies that would make Cass giddy.

“I got some oxy over here.” Tulip shakes the pill bottle to emphasis her point.

“Alright. Good, good.”

It’s in the last bag that he finds the CDs scattered at the bottom. He’s no Bieber fan, but he’s pretty sure that these aren’t his albums. Each of the 4 cases had different beach pictures.

“Sounds of the Ocean? What the hell is this, Tulip?”

“He likes the beach, okay! Used to go with his mom when he was a kid, but hasn’t been to one since. Remember, we were going to go to the beach and then you left? He was all excited to be able to go back to one so… so… you know what? After this, we are takin’ him to the damn beach!”

Jesse can only nod numbly as he glances over to Cassidy’s body. What he wouldn’t do to go back and just take them to the fucking beach like he suggested, instead of following after the Men in White.

He is a damn fool.

Marie rolls back into the room and goes back to her spot near his head; she places a metal funnel into his mouth and gathers a few of jars as she gets to work pouring different things into a new cup.

“Magnesium,” Jesse mutters as he watches her work on Cass. “Zinc. Mercury.”

Tulip takes a small step forward. “Mercury? Isn’t that poisonous?” 

“He’s already dead.”

She puts the lid onto the cup and places it back onto the blender; she presses down on it a few times to make sure it’s all good and mixed before taking it off and pouring it into the funnel. Marie dips a dropper into the small glass container and pulls it back out with a few drops of blue liquid inside of it. She leans in close to Cassidy’s mouth and carefully only drops one into it.

The three watch Cassidy, but after a few minutes Tulip begins to grow impatient. She shifts her weight from side to side and lets out a deep sigh.

“Why isn’t it working?”

“Sometimes it takes a moment to figure out how to come back, and… sometimes there’s not enough reason for the to come back at all.”

“Bullshit.” Jesse lets out a deep breath. “He’ll come back. He has to come back.”

Tulip takes a small step back, so that she’s side to side with Jesse, and smacks his arm. When he finally looks up at her she widens her eyes and flicks them between him and Cassidy.

“What?”

“Fuckin’ talk to him, dumbass.”

“Cassidy,” He flicks his tongue out and drags it across his dry lips. “You hear me? It’s time for you to come back. I promised you and Tulip that trip to the beach and you know I don’ like to break my promises.”

Tulip presses play and the sound of waves splashing and seagulls squawking fills the small room.

“I don’ like to talk. You know that, all those nights we got drunk in the church and what did I talk ‘bout? Nothin’. But I’m gonna try, all right? Because you and Tulip… you two are my only friends. The people who know the darkness that’s in me and accept it. Hell, you tried pulling it out of me.You helped with those angels, many times might I add, you forgave me when it took me too long to get you outta the sun, you dropped everything to come with me to try and find God. Jesus, Cass. I need you to come back.”

“Ya’ hear him, Cass?” Tulip calls from behind Jesse. “We need you so you best get your ass back here. I can’t deal with Jesse’s bullshit by myself anymore. I’m too old for that shit.”

Cassidy jerks up with a gasp and falls back down onto his as he greedily sucks in air into his screaming lungs. With one of his hands he messily places his hand against the bullet hole in his stomach; the bullet slowly gets pushed out of his stomach as his insides being to knit itself back together.

“Oh, thank God.” Jesse places his head down next to him and Cassidy raises his free hand to gently pat Jesse’s head.

“There, there, Padre. No need to wet my shirt wit’ your tears.”

Tulip lets out a wet laugh as she places her hand on top of the one on Jesse’s head and laces her fingers together with Cassidy’s. He lets out a laugh as he finally looks at his surroundings.

“Aye, are you throwin’ a fuckin’ party without me? Who th’ hell are you?”

Jesse finally lifts his head to stare at his friend, a wide grin on his face as he sees Cass’ chest rise and fall with each breath. “’Course not. Waitin’ for you before we dug in.”

Tulip shakes the pill bottle that’s still loosely held in her fist and Cass’ eyes zero in on it. “Sharin’ is carin’, luv. Why dontcha place a few of those in here?”

“You need to rest.”

Cass swivels his head back around to stare at Marie. “’nd who the hell are you?”

“She’s my gran’ma, Cass. She helped get you back.”

“Is that so?” Cass looks back at Jesse and Tulip. “She musta been a right looka’ back in the day if you’re related to her, aye?”

Jesse shakes his head, but the grin never falters. “She’s right. You needa rest.”

“Well then, why not gimme a few of those and let me get some bloody rest?”

He lets out a whoop of joy as Tulip finally pulls her hand away to take the lid off of the plastic, orange container. Jesse and Tulip are so absorbed in their own happiness that they don’t notice Marie rolling out of the room, but Cassidy does and keeps his eyes on her back until she’s finally out of view.

“Here.”

Tulip holds out her hand, a few while pills peaking from between her fingers, and Cassidy just grins as he sticks out his tongue. She heaves out a sigh, but drops the pills into his awaiting mouth anyway.

“Oi, that chocolate?”

Jesse lets out a chuckle and puts his head back down on Cassidy’s arm. He finally feels like the weight has been lifted off of his shoulder now that he knows his friend is alright. Jesse isn’t sure how he’s going to make it up to him, and Tulip, but will. For now he just lets his body relax and his mind drift off as he listens to his friends talking to each other.

 The last thought he has is that he’s never felt so save as he does between Cassidy and Tulip.

Fuck.

**Author's Note:**

> I just recently started watching Preacher and I'm an emotion wreck right now. I feel like the first season was just building a friendship and by the end of s2 it's basically gone. Talk to me on [Tumblr](https://lucihatesgoats.tumblr.com/)


End file.
